Streaming Media White Paper 2008 - (Page 19) www.streamingmedia.com 19 The MICAH Production Workflow at NBC Universal combines Digital Rapids solutions with in-house development to monetize content across new distribution opportunities. to throw away these systems. Instead, they’re looking for a modular approach that will allow them to integrate the new functionality they require with their existing components. Not only can Digital Rapids’ encoding, transcoding, and streaming solutions be connected together in complete workflows, but we also enable our customers to put them together with their existing systems and components, integrating the solutions directly into their own custom systems and workflows through easily accessible interfaces ranging from web services (SOAP) APIs to advanced low-level software development kits. Our management applications such as Transcode Manager also feature direct third-party database support,such as Oracle and SQL Server,for easy integration. Our solutions are equally at home as standalone islands, combined into complete enterprise and global workflows with each other, or used as building blocks alongside other components in custom systems tailored to the unique needs of an organization. episodic series, current and archived NBCU shows are now available for viewing on numerous devices. Even just considering the web, NBCU content is now available through a broad range of portals, including nbc.com (ondemand streaming of full episodes), Hulu.com (NBCU’s joint venture with News Corporation), and Amazon Unbox (episodes can be purchased and downloaded). Another recent NBCU initiative, NBC Direct, makes the most recent episode of select primetime and latenight entertainment programming available for download on a limited-time free viewing license. To enable these new distribution opportunities, NBCU needed to create an efficient digital media workflow to repurpose their existing content into the diverse distribution formats required by these new platforms. With massive volumes of content to be processed on an ongoing basis and the timeliness of content availability important to viewer satisfaction, maximizing the overall throughput of the workflow was also critical. In addition to file-based media sources, many media assets are still delivered to the digital media production pipeline on tape, necessitating a closely integrated ingest and encoding component to the workflow. NBCU and Digital Rapids worked closely together to develop the MICAH company-wide, multiformat digital media production workflow. Spanning NBC’s geographically dispersed operations, the fully automated MICAH system maximizes quality and speed while providing timely availability of media content in multiple formats and eliminating the time-consuming manual interactions previously required at multiple points in the content production and distribution chain. MICAH includes software developed inhouse by NBCU using Digital Rapids development tools and integrates Digital Rapids’ encoding and transcoding solutions with NBCU’s Oracle enterprise database system and third-party distribution software. The Digital Rapids Transcode Manager enterprise-level transcoding system provides top-quality conversion of file-based media from its source format to the formats and specifications needed for each target platform. For source material originating on tape, Digital Rapids’ StreamZ systems provide automated ingest and simultaneous encoding to multiple formats. “Digital Rapids systems power many of the digital media workflows throughout the NBC Universal organization,” said Rab Mukraj, director of digital media delivery at NBC Universal.“Working closely with Digital Rapids, we’ve built a unique, high-quality, and scalable ingest,encoding,and transcoding workflow that has streamlined our digital media operations and enabled the automation needed for repurposing and managing the substantial volume of content we process. Digital Rapids’ approach permits us the scalability we need to plan the future growth of our operations.” By combining Digital Rapids’ solutions and expertise with their own development and existing systems, NBC Universal has built a digital media infrastructure that permits content to be monetized across the evergrowing range of distribution opportunities. ABOUT DIGITAL RAPIDS Digital Rapids (www.digital-rapids.com) develops market-leading hardware and software solutions for transforming and delivering media, enabling the multi-platform experiences that are defining the future of digital video. Scaling from individual applications to enterprise and global operations, Digital Rapids systems span the critical points in today’s complex media workflows. Recipient of two prestigious Frost & Sullivan awards in the World Video Encoders and Transcoders market, Digital Rapids combines innovative technology with proven expertise to help our customers maximize their productivity, quality, and the value of their content in the evolving digital media market. Case Study: NBC Universal A perfect example of the custom integration capabilities of Digital Rapids’ solutions is the MICAH Production Workflow at NBC Universal (NBCU), which has been short-listed for an IBC Innovation Award at the annual European broadcast and media conference. NBCU has expanded the reach of its broad portfolio of media properties and content assets across multiple platforms, including the web, VOD, and electronic sell-through (EST). From features and specials to reality programming and http://www.streamingmedia.com http://nbc.com http://Hulu.com http://www.digital-rapids.com
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